How to FINISH writing an album
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- Опубликовано: 29 июн 2024
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I find starting creative projects VERY EASY and finishing them...much harder. How about you?
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Get your free 12-track taster album of dreamy indie rock songs + bonus free gift here penfriend.rocks/hello
Loving the Tea and Empathy videos Laura!
Thank you!
I’m a list person. Very satisfying to cross things off. I’ve got 3 weeks 2 & a half days left until the summer holidays start and I have quite the list to get through. Then there will be one for what I need to do before the new academic year starts, but that’s not going to be a long one as it’s my holiday and time for a much needed recharge!!!
Nice one Alison - go go go! I'm all for going hard style on the lists and projects but there definitely has to be a break afterwards. I'm aiming to take August pretty easy - or if not, then September for sure.
@@Penfriendrocks definitely need downtime too. Enjoy it when you’re able to take it.
@@alisonjenkins-wood8811 Thank you!
Ooh, lots and lots of answers to those questions....this may take some time....I'll be back.... 🤯🧠
I've found that asking a friend to be my accountability buddy has helped me start or finish stuff that I would otherwise keep procrastinating (f.e. for recording/mixing songs some years ago, for getting bigger zines finished but also for tidying etc). I should be able to be my own accountability buddy but sometimes it's easier to have someone else put some additional pressure on me. 🙂 Thank you for sharing your experience! It's very exciting to see the list of songs that will soon be revealed to the world (and some we've already had the pleasure to discover here on youtube).
YES to the accountability buddy. I'm using this channel as accountability! :D I still have your glorious zines, you know, and I put the typing octopus in a frame in the very room I shot this video in. I'll make sure it's on display next time so you can see xo
The use of artificial (yet crucially manageable) deadlines has been really helpful for me in the past.
A little story to elaborate: 8 years ago, before I started getting serious about this artist project, I was getting married and wanted to write a song for my wife to play on the day. I woke up one morning in February 2016 with a chord in my head and knew that it was the basis of this song. The wedding was in early April that year, so I had about 6 or 7 weeks to write the song from start to finish. Normally, whenever I’d write a song in the past, I’d get a little way in and I’d quickly say “Nah, that’s sh*t. You can come up with something better than that”. Rinse, repeat. However, with a less than two months until the wedding, I had something to help me push back and say “Tough sh*t! You’ve got to work with what you’ve got!”.
I finished the song, my wife loved it, the wedding guests loved it, and I still play it to this day.
I also went through a period of writing what I called “Six Day Songs” based around how Matt Stone & Trey Parker wrote for South Park. Early in my solo songwriting “career”, I’d attend an open mic night on a Thursday, so I’d start writing a brand new song on the Friday before to play for the open mic. I won’t lie: some of these songs were sh*t and have never been played since, but some I still play now (with a few tweaks here and there to improve on them - I’ve learned a lot more about songwriting economics since then).
Other than that, all the stuff you’ve mentioned about exercise, getting outside and genuinely looking after yourself are all brilliant ways of giving your brain the rest and room to be creative.
It sounds to me like you’re setting yourself up to succeed and that you’re going to smash it out of the park! (Re-wrote this last sentence about 5 times as I didn’t want it to sound patronising, only supportive).
You're very supportive, thank you! And what a great story about your wedding song - beautiful!! Tell me more about Matt & Trey's writing process if you can - I'd love to hear it. (or obviously I can and will Google it)
@@Penfriendrockswould be happy to oblige!
Because South Park uses incredibly sophisticated technology to animate a show that has a very simple visual style, it means that they can turn around a show from conception to finished episode within a week. Their episodes air on a Wednesday and they begin writing it in their writers room on the preceding Thursday (often with absolutely NO IDEA of what the story is going to be at all). This is how they’ve historically been able to respond to global events often within days of them happening (they put out an episode about Obama’s 2008 election win THE DAY AFTER it happened). I’ve heard them talk about this as being a bit scrappy and punk rock - “it’s like Saturday Night Live: it’s not always the best, but you know that it’s live and they put it together that week”*
There’s a fascinating documentary they made about a decade ago called Six Days To Air that follows them during the making of an episode where they talk about this stuff a lot. It’s really interesting even if you’re not a fan of the show.
*I’m massively paraphrasing a quote from Matt Stone there - can’t remember if it’s from the documentary or one of their commentary tracks.
@@danthomassolo There's a documentary? Thank you!
For me, everything has its own soundtrack in my mind, and most tasks have a purpose or a finite end. I just figure if it's something I don't love, it can't last forever, and when it's something I like, I'd better enjoy it while it lasts. Also, everything's an adventure for me. In case there are any other corny analogy people out there: When I'm trying to find the gold at the end of the rainbow, I remember that I can enjoy seeing the rainbow, too - and sometimes the rain preceding it, and if I don't, it won't be there forever.
I read about your 1000 words/day writing in the Penfriend email, and that's awesome! I like that you can/did also take a break and restart the process.
This is such a lovely way of looking at things. "This too shall pass"...even this boring admin task I've been putting off for months? ;)
Ah, so really big projects have to be, for me, to tackle one little manageable bit at a time. Write down what needs to be done to finish the (e.g) album and list what tasks are involved. Tick them off one day at a time 😊
100% - great system!
Good luck finishing up the writing process! 😁🙏👊
I always find the *finishing* a track to be 1,000 times harder than the starting. 😅
I often struggle with arrangement and trying to keep things interesting, while obsessing with trying to squeeze in more ear candy, but not overdo it. 🤭
Thank you!! YES I'm glad I'm not alone in this. Once I actually get going I love doing all the bits and bobs, and arranging the musical parts is one of my favourite bits so I actually hold myself back from getting too deep into that until the melody and lyrics are done, for fear of ending up with lots of nice instrumentals and no album. Agreed production/arranging is a delicate balance. Deciding when to stop is always good!
Well, where did that best part of a day get to...got side tracked by life, re-installing a mass of music software which had gone wayward and making a jelly for my pud 😊....
Some very interesting thoughts from yourself and others on here that I may have to pinch and try out 😁...making list of things that need working on rather than just noodling, very often without recording any ideas 🙄 Setting a goal or release date....your working backwards 😊 Reducing phone use, taking breaks and getting outside. I do have a problem with getting bored working on my own music. Something that I thought at first was the best thing that I've ever come up with can turn into a whole load of meh quite quickly, so maybe forcing myself to keep at it until I make some progress may not be best for me. Maybe work in smaller chunks 🤔... Anyways, your video has actually given me a kick up the ar5e! It has reminded me that even though I haven't been anywhere near as productive as you, umm, two albums of instrumental electronic whatever in 20 years, and occasionally an odd track here or there. I did actually finish some stuff and put it out there, so I can do it again!
Having a reason or someone to write some music for seems to help me finish things. Though ask me how I came up with some of the tracks I've finished, especially ones that I like the best, I haven't got a 🤬 clue....plucked from the ether maybe, who knows. Perhaps I need to say, yeah, I need someone to write for so why not for myself! 🙄
So here's a list to be getting on with....
1. Put your phone down.....perhaps I should put that last or I'll never finish this comment 😂
2. Set a release date for my next release
3. Don't over do it. Make sure to take breaks
4. Don't feel guilty about taking a break
5. Stop playing the procastinettes and over thinking things
6. Drink more tea
....well that's a start. Thank you Laura and everyone else with useful ideas. Time to put my phone down, put the kettle on and make some tunes....bye for now 😁
P. S. I loved your "this is my face. It holds my brains in" 😂
How have I never noticed your cool laptop cover/skin before 😂
I don't think my laptop has ever starred in a video before!
Timely information for me Laura as I have set myself 2 weeks to finish a song we've been working on for months!
Oh nice one - go go go!!!
Hi Laura. I spent ten years adding ideas to my first book. Similar problem in that I would have bursts of creativity then distracted by life. Genuinely thought I would never publish. Similar to your advice I stopped listening to other people's advice or searching for ideas in other people's creativity. Decided on a simple plan. Trust myself, write an hour daily ( Which often turned to lots of hours). Tasked myself with finishing a section or putting an idea on paper. The main thing that helped me was working on one document, however bare it started rather than lots of individual chapters. That seemed to galvanise me to complete it. I have completed 5 books now and am working on the 6th, so..........Not sure if that is helpful as you seem to have some great ideas yourself. Take care and looking forward to your new album. Kindest regards. Darren
Great work Darren - that's a lot of books!!
As I’ve already mentioned, I’m a dreadful starter but an excellent finisher. If someone gives me a framework to work with that can help me start. Because I have an expectation to do everything I do to 100%, I think this hinders me starting. But once I start, I will often smash it.
Often my wife will give me a piece of her work to edit & sense check. This is a strength of mine.
But give me a job list & I freeze…
But give me an idea, then I may just fly with it 😊
Aha - that makes me think of an idea I recently picked up from Cal Newport (highly recommend his books and podcast!): when your brain is saying the thing you're working on is no good, he says to tell it that this thing is going to be a finished thing, and the next one is going to be the great thing. I know I said starting is easy in this video, but I do mean specifically starting songs (capturing quick ideas) is easy (for me), and that starting to finish is very hard. So empathy on that front!
I loved minidisc
Me too!
@@Penfriendrocks for years I had one in my car connected to the tape player with one of those cassette adapters. I bought cd singles from the Woolies bargain bin and made incredible b side albums and what would now be called playlists!! Sold it all a couple of years back to buy a reverb pedal that has become a core part of my sound.
I find when I'm not stressed stuff just happens. Try doing something in the studio once. To this day that song isn't finished. It will happen when I'm not thinking about it. Writing riffs on the other hand I can knock out in about 10 minutes
Nice one!
Very cool. Similar to the writing 1000 words a day, I used to set myself the task of writing and recording a demo track every month. Did that for a few years and some of those tracks ended up with the band - and on some of our records. A lot didn't, and right nowI'm going back through a lot of them to see what's wrong, if anything can be changed to improve them and make them work. A lot of the time it's structure (too long, slow buildups when not really required, etc.), sometimes it's the vocal melody not quite right, some lyrics that don't quite work. And I'm working on fixing that so they can get to the band, and can get onto future releases of ours.
Oh this is wonderful to hear! I bet you'll find loads of great stuff in there. Sometimes it takes a bit of time and distance to appreciate it, doesn't it.
So far I've always written in intense blocks - or at least, finished songs in intense blocks - but I don't want to carry on like that. Once I finish this album I'll just keep going, finishing songs all the time. Thanks for the nudge on that front :)
@@Penfriendrocks It’s very true that some distance and time helps, yes. And can help breathe new life into what you may have thought of as a discard. In the band we never write specifically for the next record, and we’re always spoiled for choice when we do finally make one!
I started a "solo EP" in 2003 . . . . . many many part written/demo'd songs and only one demo fully recorded so far, and I don't see that the snog demo'd will every go any further . . . . .
Some projects take a really long time...and that's ok! Would you like to finish the songs? I comfort myself with the concept of "Eigenzeit" - the idea that everything has an inherent amount of time it'll take to get to completion. That's why sometimes I set deadlines and they whoosh past (or so I tell myself).
My Vitriol. Now that was an album. Shame they didn’t last beyond that first record.
They're still going, but yeah, I always wondered whether that first one was just so popular they psyched themselves out of doing a follow up. The "difficult second album" thing.
@@Penfriendrocks I didn’t know they were still at it.
@@andsoistopped yep: myvitriol.bandcamp.com
@@Penfriendrocks cool. Will check it out. Good old Bandcamp. ❤️
Bye bye Future Consumer, I guess. Shame, I like that one. As for your question about finishing projects, I'm the absolute worst person to ask about that. Unless someone tells me there's a deadline, I can procrastinate forever.
Not goodbye, just see you later - it just doesn't fit on *this* album (at the moment...things can always change!).
@@Penfriendrocks hopefully you'll release it as a non-album single if it doesn't.
Well lyrics are one thing the music however may take up to 1-3yrs to get right as it's rather complex like the songs itself I pushed myself for song 30/31 but had to re-write large sections of the lyrics and will probably change add re-write on 31 music for songs are way off from even being started
Ahhhhhhh! So when you say you've written a "song" do you mean "poem / set of lyrics"? In my mind my ideas aren't songs until there's music, melody and words.
@@Penfriendrocks lyrics so essentially half a song music is in my head